Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, the country’s first leader elected in nationwide polls, died Thursday, triggering political uncertainty ahead of planned elections. He was 92.
The veteran politician, the oldest head of state after Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, came to power in 2014, three years after the Arab Spring uprising toppled longtime despot Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked revolts in several Arab nations.
His death ushers in a period of political transition in the North African nation, hailed as a rare Arab Spring success story. Essebsi had been hospitalised with a severe illness in late June and was returned to intensive care yesterday.
“Things are not going well,” the leader’s son Hafedh Caid Essebsi told AFP earlier yesterday after he was readmitted. German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday called Essebsi “a courageous actor on the road to democracy”. And Italian premier Giuseppe Conte took to Twitter to send his condolences for the passing of a “statesman of great … humanity”.
Meanwhile, the leader of Tunisia’s parliament has been sworn in as the interim president. The state news agency TAP reported that Mohamed Ennaceur, president of the Assembly of People’s Representatives, took the oath of office yesterday, hours after Essebsi’s death in the morning.
According to the Tunisian constitution, the parliament chief takes over for a period of 45 to 90 days if the president is incapacitated, until new elections are organized